sardines

[mom61508]

I finally ate sardines today and they were surprisingly really good. I bought boneless,skinless in olive oil and salt. Are the boneless, skinless just as healthy for you as the bone in, skin on? Just curious what the differences are.

[vermontmomma]

i'm not sure but i do know that there is a ton of calcium in the bones.
i really want to broaden my tf repetoire and try some mustard dill ones dh just bought (he loves all kinds of stinky canned fishies). i really hope i like them!

[Plaid Leopard]

Yes, the bones are full of calcium - and they are pretty soft so it's not like you are crunching away at regualr bones. If you make a sardine sandwich (with butter - yum!) you will hardly notice the bones at all.
I usually just scrape most of the skin off if I sdon't have skinless.

[Magelet]

The bones are full of calcium (I wouldn't say you don't notice them, you do, but they're totally edible, very very tiny bones), however that doesn't mean that boneless aren't healthy. They still are, they just aren't as healthy. Give the bone-in ones a try, and if you hate them, well at least the boneless are still super healthy, and if you like them, all the better.

[luvmybaby333]

Crashing in here...

Do sardines have little fishy heads on them? I've always been super curious to try them... but the idea of eating something with the head still attached really skeeves me out.

[mombh]

no heads
they really are yum, even my ds 1yr likes little bits of them, but yeah he does get a "fishy" smell bout him
btw, canned salmon with the bones are also loaded with calcium and yum too.

[425lisamarie]

I really, REALLY love sardines mixed with chopped up olives and mayo spread on dark rye bread

[tanyalynn]

I've been contemplating a paste-type dip/spread with whole sardines, I figure it's the easiest way to get the whole fish without dealing with texture issues (or think about eating their little eyeballs ). I saw some recipes a while back here at MDC that looked great, but lost my bookmarks.

[mombh]

I would love to try some of those recipe's, a spread or dip sounds like it would work for some of my kids who don't like the little fishies.
I usually get the sardines with bones and all but haven't seen them with heads...just tails or maybe I just have not been looking at what I eat LOL

[Magelet]

This is usually for anchovies, but you might be able to use sardines instead:
I LOVE gremolata and olive tapenade with anchovies in them.

for the olive tapenade, blend/process olive oil, pitted green olives, anchovies, capers, lemon juice, garlic and parsley. (It can keep a while, the salt and acid make the garlic safe even in the olive oil)


gremolata would be olive oil, lots of parsley, garlic, lemon juice, anchovies, and salt if needed.

[stilllearning85]

I was just coming on to MDC to ask about sardines now that I can get them on WIC! Thanks for the post and the recipe ideas!

[Koalamom]

I LOVE sardines! Although I really get grossed out by seeing the tiny bendy fish spines, so I quickly pile it on bread and not look at it, just enjoy the yummy flavor. I did get a can once that said "wild caught", so does that mean they are usually farm raised?

[ihugtrees]

I love this dip made with sardines: 1 little can sardines, 3 tablespoons olive oil, 1/4 cup chopped sundried tomatoes, small diced red onion, 1 clove raw garlic, 2 tablespoons lime juice, salt and pepper to taste. The original recipe (can't remember where I got it) called for 1/4 cup Spanish olives and a regular onion, but I didn't have either and it turned out great.

[PreggieUBA2C]

We stopped eating anything out of cans a couple of years ago because of the chemicals in the linings that leach into foods.

Are you finding non-canned sardines? I used to looooooove canned sardines and they were the hardest thing to give up (of the three items we used to buy in cans- tomato paste and pineapples were the ther two).

Every now and then I see a bag of frozen whole sardines and wonder if I could make them at home. I'd love to make preserves with tomato or mustard or dill sauces.

Does anyone make them from scratch? Or do you find them in some other receptacle than cans or do the health benefits really outweigh the risks? I just haven't looked into it for a long while and had given up them.

[NoTiGG]

I like sardines but I loveee fresh ones. when they are really fresh they don't have much smell if any at all. and they are super good. I leave the backbones in for extra crunch and its so good with just some salt and pepper and olive oil.

[PreggieUBA2C]

Hm. Thanks for that. I'm going to try some the next time I see them.

[mbravebird]

Originally Posted by NoTiGG

I like sardines but I loveee fresh ones. when they are really fresh they don't have much smell if any at all. and they are super good. I leave the backbones in for extra crunch and its so good with just some salt and pepper and olive oil.

Where do you get fresh ones?

This thread is super inspiring!

[Punchy Kaby]

I wonder if there are dried ones at the asian market? Maybe fresh as well?

This is a little OT, but has anyone made bone broth from fish, or dried fish?

[PreggieUBA2C]

Originally Posted by Punchy Kaby

I wonder if there are dried ones at the asian market? Maybe fresh as well?

This is a little OT, but has anyone made bone broth from fish, or dried fish?

I've been wondering about this too because where I live, the only native fish species are oily, and NT says that oily fish isn't good for broth because it can go rancid from boiling time and temp. I just don't know how reasonable that is; I cannot imagine that all oily fish has traditonally been just discarded once the flesh is eaten. But I haul water and don't want to boil it for 12-24 hrs just to make pig food- that's a lot of resources used.

Maybe those bones were instead ground up or roasted or eaten some other way?

Punchy, non-oily fish bones make a lovely broth (I'm not sure if you were wondering about all fish or just sardine-like/oily fish). I wish I had some non-oily fish bones to boil. I think NT has a recipe for that stock, but googling fish broth would probably yield results. I'm going to check on the oily fish broth idea too.

[Koalamom]

I have made bone broth from salmon bones, and only let it boil like an hour if I can remember. It was heavenly and made the base for some amazing chowders. My favorite is creamy potato soup, and pureed cooked white beans made it non dairy but creamy. If we could have dairy fresh cream would have been better.